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Hello dear beautiful world! Hello dear beautiful planet! Today I celebrate the art of amazing parenting… the art of dancing with one’s child on far away beaches… the art of capturing dragons in the clouds and of counting all of the colors in one small spec of this abundant Universe…. today, I celebrate the ones that will struggle bravely next to their eternally buoyant wee one as they hike through the darkness in pursuit of that one magical sunrise… the ones that will listen to endless recounting of dreams… the endless belief in possible impossibilities… endless hopes… endless pleasures… the ones that embrace the energy… the passion and even the heartache… today I celebrate the parent that will brave it all to keep their child’s hope and imagination thriving… the parent that will say, “of course you can” and “aren’t you amazing?”…. Today I celebrate all that lies within each of us that allows us to be the perfect parent to the child within…..

Life’s a beach… a lovely vision…. but without the waves, our beautiful oceans would be simply a bunch of very large bodies of stagnant waters…..

…So, whether you are building sand castles or playing in the surf, make a big splash with your day! Revel in your ability to make waves and to add to the majesty of our great ocean of humanity. Your unique “flow” of energy and ideas contribute in profound ways to the mightiness of eternity…!

A fall is just a spontaneous moment of unexpected flight before you hit new ground….wink!

Yes, that was the lesson of the Universe as I found myself yesterday suspended in an unexpected “flyover” (that moment when you find yourself in mid-flip over the handlebars waiting to see where you will land…). We were within the final 5 miles of our ride… since turnout was a bit low, we had been grouped with some of the most accomplished riders in the club, so this ride had quickly evolved into one of the fastest rides ever … it was an absolutely GLORIOUS day…PERFECT weather…beautiful clouds…the terrain was windy with quite a few (pant, wheeze, pant) hills to climb…the sand could be quite thick and treacherous but we were CRUISING!! I was feeling good….no, I was feeling GREAT!!

It was one of those riveting moments when you realize that you have grown… you have blossomed into something more… you have become an even better version of you…. in this case, I realized that I have really become an infinitely rider than I had been even a year ago. Even the more advanced riders were commenting about it… I was zooming and loving it….!!

We had just stopped for a quick decision at a fork in the road then hopped back on our bikes for a rather sharp decline… I began to hear a lot of the guys ahead of me jokingly saying “weeee weeeee” and then there “it” was… the Universe’s little joie du jour for me… hee hee… It came in the form of a rather pronounced series of roots/small logs embedded in the path that created a series of steps in the middle of a pretty fast descent… even without any additional dimensions to the challenge, it would have been tricky to navigate at that speed, but couple it with the patch of deep sand in between the roots and well….I was suddenly in flight feeling like Mary Poppins…. “practically perfect”, with heavy emphasis in this case on “practically”…..!

Interestingly enough though, in spite of the rather large new bruises…in spite of the wee bit of blood…my desire was to hop immediately on my bike and fly even faster…. so that’s what I did…! Amazingly, I even managed to catch back up with the guys who were the faster riders… my mind, my body and my bike became one… I was exhausted, but I was elated… there was a rhythm and a rightness to each obstacle…and a glory in each tiny achievement… the moment was in no way about having fallen… it became totally about having bounced up and moved forward with new drive and new determination…

As I pulled into the parking lot suddenly noticing that I was the lone “B-” rider still with the “B/B+” pack, it struck me that the glory of the adventure had not been eroded by the fall. Instead, the glory of the success had been enhanced with the discovery that not only can we get up when we fall, it can be these falls that add to our momentum. Yes, for a moment as I flew through the air, the wind had literally been at my back— and before my feet even touched the ground (or should I say, my back, my shoulders, my legs…BIG THUMP!! HA HA…), my spirit had decided that I wasn’t going to lose that sense of wondrous flight just because I took a momentary hit….

With a smile and a wee bit of drama, our dear Mother Earth sent me out the door to play…saying “jump in those puddles”, “run down those hills”… “fall down every now and again–it’s good for the spirit”…” because in these challenges lie the promise that not only do you have the strength to get up, you have the tenacity to create “more”…the bubbling desire to dream more….to love more….to live more….and more and more and more…

Life is as much as the glory of being thrown over the handlebars as it is about the victory of the finish! If today is a day when you get thrown, so be it! Grab that bike and race on forward…. And even if you are alone in the forest, remember that you always have your own mighty voice to cheer yourself on… wink!

Some days are just SPECTACULAR and April 9th was one of those days for me! Thanks to Kavita Joshi and HER wonderful blog http://talkingexperience.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/versatile-blogger-award/ for nominating me! As I said to her when she told me, Frodo (the grand protector of our royal domain) and his “second in command” Diesel and I were doing the “full tail in the air” happy dance as we frolicked in the Tinkerbell fairy dust and dined on chocolate… yes, April 9th was already a “go ahead and eat dessert first” sort of day! The question was simply which of the chocolate lovelies would we dive into first!

So my humble but exuberant thanks to dear Kavita for bestowing this lovely award on me!

Nominate 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — include a link to their site (and tell them that you nominated them)

Wow!! Where do I begin?? There are so many amazingly wonderful blogs. It is indeed an amazingly blissful and inspiring world that we share here in the blogosphere… So… if I must chose only 15, know that this was a super tough challenge and that I so appreciate all of the joy and encouragement and hope and laughter that so many put out into the world on a daily basis!

http://runningkattales.com (for nominating me for very Inspiring blogger and encouraging me with my little Tinkerbell blog!!–a nomination which I confess came when I was so new to my blogging experience that I hadn’t really had time to explore the community… yes, I got a wee bit bogged down trying to select the 15 bloggers that I would nominate…gulp…how would I possibly narrow that down…hee hee…although now…. wink!)

If I have learned anything in my life, it’s to bask fully in the moment…expect Life to deliver miracles to you… and believe that “those terrible things” are often the very vessels that carry us toward achieving the dreams that we hold so dear…from our challenges comes inspiration…but remember to describe your day based on your successes—not based on your perceived stumbles…remember to talk to yourself the way that you would have your mate adore you…isn’t that really the most profound meaning of having a “soul mate”?… love life…love life…love life…and then love life some more….

When I was in middle school (then called junior high), I was told that I had no artistic talent… when I was in college, I was given a C+ over D- for my writing…. and so I went many years defining what I “could do” based on the “assessment” of some “authoritative others”. I don’t regret that because now I love (LOVE) my artistic gifts and (swoon) sharing my own unique writing perspective with others… like precious treasures that had remained lost for decades, I cherish them now more than ever…and yet… to those who are still chronologically young (and those who are just young at heart), I would say: As much as others would love to tell you who you are and what you can (or cannot do), their words are only “true” if you believe them…yes, you are the writer, director and lead actor in your story. You define who you are and where your joy lies. Yes, bliss is a hint to tell you where you are “meant” to go…. blissful moments are the breadcrumbs along the sweet path “homeward”…

I was a single mom for virtually the entire time that my children were young but what a glorious adventure it was! As my son once said, “we may not have a ‘normal’ family but we have a perfect one!” My children never cease to surprise and delight me. They are proof that often the fairy tale is nice but the reality is luscious!! (Ditto to the sweet wonderful man that is now in my life…wink!)

I have been some shape or form of a vegetarian/pescetarian for almost (wow) 40 years. I credit this culinary style for enabling me to keep up with the “youngsters” on this planet! Wink! I work out (in sheer “sweat-filled bliss) 5 days a week and go mountain biking on day 6. (I dance with Frodo and Diesel on Day 7)

I believe in the power of day dreaming…hugely inspired by the amazing insights of Esther Hicks/ Abraham “Law of Attraction”. By retraining my mind to focus on ideas and beliefs that really serve me, I have seen magic unfold… I wear my Tinkerbell wings and rose colored glasses proudly… my dreams not only empower me, but they ground me–and reel me back in when I tread in those “scary places” that my mind sometimes insists that I “should” go.

I am only about 4 weeks away from launching my chocolate cookbook! Yes, what a crazy thing for a health/fitness enthusiast to be doing…wink! But that’s part of the fun…creating one’s own definition of who we are… and sometimes doing the unexpected even people might say that it doesn’t quite “fit”…wink! I am a bit of a food snob, so if I am going to eat desserts, it must be something extraordinary! And exxxtraordinary in my world means Ghirardelli brownies not chocolate cake with sprinkles (although chocolate cake with sprinkle lovers are wonderful too!), soooo….over the years, I have played around with numerous recipes to get them where they could make my knees melt….well apparently, they made some of my friends’ and family’s knees melt too because for years, people have BEGGED me for my recipes…believe it or not, it never occurred to me until about a month ago to consider writing a chocolate cook book…in fact, the entire world of publishing seemed TREMENDOUSLY INTIMIDATING…sort of like winning the lottery…until one day, I stumbled upon this crazy course about writing an ebook and I decided to give it a whirl…so cross fingers…ha ha!

I am a huge dachshund fan, so it is with great joy that Frodo and I launched his own little blog and of course FB page…. life only spans 100 years, so make time to chase squirrels, feel the wind in your ears, wag often and savor the snackie-poos!

(I know…you said 7) I am not known for my brevity…wink!

Thank you again for nominating me for this! Back to shining the Tinkerbell wings and admiring the night sky with the protectors of the Royal Domain!

The greatest heroes of the greatest stories were often armed with little more than their imagination and their determination….often they even lacked courage and knowledge…and yet somehow, they managed not only to succeed but to save the world in the process of doing so….

It can be tempting to chide ourselves for not being good enough…or powerful enough…or beautiful enough or just plain great enough to play the lead in our own fairy tale…and yet, here we are…cast in that role wondering what on earth the producers were thinking…??

Well, the truth be told, do we really need wings to soar?… or does that superhero cape really have to be magical? We believe that the magical creatures look like elves or unicorns only because we have been taught to believe that they couldn’t possibly look like us…or even if they looked like us, they couldn’t possibly ACT like us—could they? The “real” super heroes do leap tall buildings and yield amazing forces… they don’t make car payments or get stuck in traffic…or gain a few pounds when they dine on chocolate…

But really, who made those “rules” and are you obligated to believe that?? Take back your power, dear wonderful friends—and BE the leading character in your own oh-so-brilliant story! Of course there will be adventure…and possibly danger… there will be some villains and some that you love…you will quest and appear to “fail” at times, but that is what makes the story so intoxicating…so impossible to put down…

Be proud of the character that you create because the face of the mightiest hero could easily be your own! Grab a cape and perhaps even a shopping cart (if that happens to be your chariot du jour)… but most of all, grab your joy with all of your boldness–and dare to BELIEVE! Start “writing” your perfect tale…. You are absolutely EVERYTHING that a true “hero” should be… you are every bit as magical even without the wand…

You don’t have to be “super-human” to play the leading role in this engrossing tale…you just have to dive head over heels into fully and blissfully BEING YOU! So go get started… there is fairy dust to start sharing…! Wink!

If the world would have you define your “reality” by what cannot be done…by what is unlikely to succeed…by what is an “impossibility”, then wear your own personal cloak of “delusional” proudly! Only in believing STEADFASTLY in our own dreams do we move toward their “REAL-ization”.

Yes, many of today’s realities were yesterday’s “impossibilities”, so more power to those who embraced the art of empowering their “delusions”– because thanks to them our world continues to become more and more and more….!

What do all great successful people have in common? … Days, weeks, months, years before their successes became evident, these same people woke up in the morning to the “reality” that these (soon-to-be achieved) goals/ hopes/ bucket lists were still “just” dreams…. Had they passively filed them away as “unrealistic” because they did not already “exist”, they would have remained “just dreams”….

So nurture each and every one of your dreams for they mold and sculpt your today—as well as your tomorrow. Don’t wait until they are “real” until you believe in them. Believe in them NOW… live them with gusto NOW… treat them like one of the most valued aspects of who you are…because you never know which one of these dreams will surprise you and one day catapult you to the day when they are no longer “just dreams” but an obvious, fully manifested, “wow-can-this-really-be-me” type of success.

Do not wait to “live the dream”. It doesn’t get any more potentially real than what we dare to imagine!

Hello dear wonderful friends and hello dear beautiful Universe! It is easy to feel awe-inspired by the teachings of the great prophets and philosophers of our species…but perhaps (as Dorothy discovered) there are equally profound–albeit more subtle– sparks of genius in Kansas as there are in Oz.

…It is the ability of the “little people” in the world— our friends, our family, our loved ones, the random stranger— to impact us suddenly and profoundly that can inspire us to become all that we truly yearn to be and all that we ultimately are… it is the smile that comes at just the right moment… or the song that seems to speak to the question within… It is the touch that seems to soothe all sorrow… or the hug that says “yes, you can!”…! It is sometimes only the simple fact that our children believe that we can accomplish the “impossible” that we actually do….!

Our lives and experiences are sculpted by the hands of those champions that surround us–big AND small…those special people who allow us to reveal the hidden magic within ourselves…

Today, instead of waiting for a new door to open, I celebrate the beauty of my own back yard…each and every flower…each singing bird…each blade of grass…each whisper of the wind… today, I celebrate the fellow humans that have helped transform what could have been a rock into a gem…those who have inspired me to see that hope is limitless and that imagination is eternal…. that love is infinite and that Life is ever more….(and more and more and more…)!

Today, I celebrate my family….my children…my oldest daughter as she approaches the glorious age of 23… as I look at the beauty within her face…as I stand aghast in awe at the brilliance, love and kindness that she radiates, I am reminded that sometimes the greatest inspiration comes not from those that we put on a pedestal but from those that we allow into our hearts…. in their richness, our souls can build that which we would call “home”…..!

Hello beautiful world and hello beautiful planet! Today is the day that we decide how we will define ourselves…! Who are we? Yes, seriously…WHO ARE “WE”? When we think of ourselves, who do we see? Who do we expect? Who do we yearn to be–and who has convinced us that we are not that?

Are we holding close to us only the beliefs that fully serve us–or are we cluttering our “reality” boards with anchors that conquer and truly divide? Is our past a series of scarlet letters or is our past the pre-paver on the way to discovering electricity?

Is it not time to filter out the “bad code” and to reprogram ourselves with the best that our personal “technology” has to offer? Can we turn in the “old phones” and move on to the “smart ones”?

And so…if we were to wake up in the morning totally whole…totally full…who would we be…or more importantly, not how would others see us as, but how would we CHOOSE to define ourselves…for in that belief is the seeds of reality…

Dear World… (and sometimes dear “Whirled”, for what a whirlwind you are….!!!),

I woke up today to discover that I am limitless… I am funny too… I see joy in Life and I do make others laugh in the process…I am solid, buoyant and ready to tackle anything new…I thrive on freshness and I thrive on discovery…the world is my oyster…just when I think that I hit a brick wall, I discover a pearl…new things are always unfolding… I never get bored because I will never EVER be able to possibly conceive of getting everything done…I am excited by new possibilities…I thrive on learning and even on those dang “problems” that make me beat my head against the wall about 2 seconds before I dance in celebration at having found the solution…I love diversity…ok, it might temporarily annoy me until it inspires me to bask in all that I have—and then to bask again at the new thing that it has inspired me to imagine…and possibly to create…I am a creature that is always moving…I am like the most majestic of the waterfalls because I am truly magnificent in my power…I am loving and even when I criticize, my purpose is to create… I love beauty..and in loving beauty, I am learning to appreciate the beauty within myself…I am a believer…I see Life as an opportunity and a palate upon which to create…my family is amazing…so diverse yet so connected…my family consists of those who I was born among and those who have connected with me across the challenges of time and space…my family is those who would see me grow and those who inspire me…my riches are endless…my riches bask in my imagination and are limited only by my temporary beliefs….I am a work in progress and it is for this reason that I play on this Earth…

Ha ha!…Sounding a bit airy fairy…but who are we, dear friends…and isn’t it time that we allow ourselves to define who we are as we take the next step forward? Yes, we have been “programmed” and we have lugged along a heavy backpack of beliefs that don’t really serve us….but we are at the helm…tomorrow is a new day and WE (yes, WE) tell us where we are at the word “go”. Isn’t it time that we proudly wear the badges of the past well lived and tread enthusiastically into the “happily ever NOW” that is here at our fingertips…? “We can fly, we can fly, we can fly”….would Tinkerbell have believed any less…wink! So jump off the windowsill and be on with it….!

Believing is seeing, so embrace the believing and the rest will come…!